Fandom Star Wars: Alliances [Closed]

[Lucyfer]

Finn’s job was a simple one, in theory: go onto other planets, and listen for other Resistance groups that were rising up. In the wake of Hosnian Prime, and the gradual takeover of the Core, this wasn’t a hard thing to find. At least, not at the beginning. There had been a major group in Corellia that Poe and Finn were able to bring into the fold.

Most Core Resistance had quieted down, though. The Order had a firm grip.

That left the other Rims to investigate, and as Finn was learning in the Outer Rim, things were significantly more subtle, and difficult to pick up on. They were also harder to persuade to join Leia – or anyone. Many of those who would oppose the Resistance were underworld cartels who wanted nothing at all to do with the New Republic, and didn’t trust Leia to honor any underground agreements when things evened out.

Some did.

Some wanted to go legit and have a job when things were restored. Finn was always trying to find those people.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t always easy – today’s adventure was a shining example of that, as Finn found himself in hot water at the cantina on Carajam, yet another desert world that made Finn think of Rey, who was somewhere out there, training with Luke Skywalker.

Unlike Finn, who couldn’t keep his mouth shut when he heard a couple of people discussing the First Order. “You can’t trust the Order,” Finn had interrupted their conversation without any tact, immediately joining their table with his drink and glancing between the mirialan woman and human man. He looked right at the woman, “They’re xenophobes, you know. They hate aliens.”

“That’s a lie,” the human said, “their supreme leader is an alien, and their Admiral has a full guard of non-humans.”

“Maybe, maybe not,” Finn said, admitting to himself he’d never seen Snoke in person, but there was a lot of talk from what pictures there were. That he could be human, albeit deformed, was something many in the Order believed. Snoke never let on to what he was. He liked the mystery of it all.

He knew about Admiral Hux, but had never been on any of her ships to be certain it was true. He had never seen her with anyone he thought was non-human, though. “Doesn’t change the fact the Order’s generally against all non-humans, and doesn’t care enough to protect their worlds or cultures. If you want to join them, you’d have to convert wholeheartedly.”

“I’m in the Order. Who are you?” It was the mirialan who spoke, looking quite upset. Finn was momentarily surprised, before relieved that he wasn’t recognized. “Former member of the Order,” he put an arm on the table and leaned in, “I’m Finn now, and look,” he directed his attention to the human now, “if you’re not with them yet, you don’t want to be. She’s selling you a lie.” He stated, “The Order isn’t going to honor any deals with your spice.” The fact he was dealing with spice traders was irritating, but he had to. The Order was. “They’re not going to let you continue to run an illegal operation, so long as they get a cut for their medical supplies. They’re not even going to let you keep running anything legal. They’re going to take it all, and force you to join them, or die, and your pay won’t be anywhere near as good as—”

The mirialan shoved Finn, surprising him as he went toppling to the ground, drink sloshing onto the ground behind him, as the woman with the Order rose to her feet and pulled a blaster. Finn scrambled back quickly, reaching for his own as the cantina around them began to wake up to the situation, and the bartender started yelling about taking it outside.

He didn’t want to clean any blaster marks. Apparently that was his biggest concern.

~***~

Sarka was a gorgeous world, though Reveille Hux had seen little of it from beyond her shuttle, which took her right to the palace where the Sarkan royal family was hosting a party that had been opened to both the Resistance and First Order, as well as other nobles from the many planets across the galaxy as an informal way of being introduced to the situation now that the Order had shown its strength – and promptly lost its strength.

In order to better cater to the idea of maintaining peace, the Sarkans insisted on masquerade. Not that it would really hide them, since their facial features were reptilian, but it was likely to keep plenty of others from recognizing each other. That was fine by Revielle, she didn’t really need Snoke becoming aware of everyone she spoke with.

He didn’t seem to pay too much attention, torn between Kylo Ren’s antics, and Armitage Hux’s pursuits, there was little concern for what she busied herself with so long as it seemed to fall in line.

And it did.

They wanted Sarkan loyalty. Sarkans had plenty of gemstones, as well as crystals that could be used for a multiplicity of projects. She still hoped to find the one that would finally put an end to the reign of terror by the Force. There were always rumors, stories, and ideas – but so far, nothing had panned out.

“No, the kohlen didn’t work,” Countess Haka was saying, showing the kohlen in her hand, a crystal indistinguishable from kyber at the visual level. The two had easily found each other in the crowd, Haka was never without the symbol of her house somewhere on her attire, and so Reveille had spotted that krastenane crest.

Reveille sighed, face hidden by the white and gold mask she donned, matching the dress, sticking to the colors of admiralty in the Order. The Countess closed her fingers over it and brought it back to her neck, putting it back on as a necklace. “There’s nothing in the Initiatives about it?”

“No, it was Clone War technology; I assumed there’d be something you’d have access to.”

“Unfortunately, Serenno is rather anti-Force for some reason,” the hint of a smile played along just under the dark blue mask, along with the derision, said enough for why. Besides its storied history with the Sith even before Dooku, Dooku and the war with the Jedi certainly soured things further. “Which means anything even mentioning it, was often destroyed. We’re lucky to have working containment field, we just can’t suppress it to our needs without a crystal that can channel that kind of energy.”

“Well, that’s why we’re here, isn’t it?” Reveille lifted her glass of sparkling wine, to which the Countess smiled and touched her own to it in agreement.

Although not officially aligned with the Order, considering Serenno would never put itself under the authority of a Force user again, the Countess was quite hoping to join the Order once that little problem was dealt with. “I don’t suppose we have any additional stories about things that dealt with the Force, do we?”

“Besides the void stones and the ysalamiri? Nothing. The Jedi hid plenty, including other Force users,” Haka sighed.

 

[Toyotathon]

The planet Carajam, another hot, sandy desert that stunk of the sweat, blood, and tears, all from the people that called this place home. Cadollez, or better known as just Cado, hated these desert worlds. They were all too hot and hard to navigate. She preferred the ice and snow. Unfortunately for her, these desert worlds seemed to be hot spots for underground activity which meant they were prime places for people to disappear. Especially people with bounties on their heads, which was exactly why she found herself here.

The mercenary had already found her bounty and claimed her money at this point. She was just waiting for the sun to go down so it wasn’t unbearable to be outside. She sat in the back as usual, alone and with a drink in hand.

As Cado sat there she watched the crowd and thought about where she should be headed next. She had to find another bounty or mercenary job soon as the money from this last one was mostly going towards refueling her ship. This job took her out of her desired range but she didn’t want to lose her reputation of never turning down a job if it got too tough.

Cado was pulled from her thoughts as she watched a man sit himself at a table that was already occupied. She could tell he was unwelcome by the looks given off by the human and mirialan, and wondered if he was just that drunk. However, their conversation continued until the Mirialan grew visibly upset. Now she was invested, wondering what was going to happen next. Bar fights were always fun to watch especially if both participants were drunk.

As the mirialan shoved the other human, Cado leaned forwards ready to watch a fight unfold. That was until the Mirialan pulled out a blaster and pointed it towards the human that was now one the ground. She could tell he was scarmling to grab his own blaster and figured she’d step in. The barkeep was already shouting about taking the fight outside, most likely not wanting to clean up the mess that these sorts of things create.

Cado left her seat and came up behind the Mirialan placing the barrel of her blaster against her neck. “Why don’t you just let the guy go? He’s clearly not thinking straight and couldn’t keep his mouth shut. Just think, if you shot him then you’d have to go through the trouble of cleaning it all up.”

The mirialan didn't answer and instead shoved her elbow into Cado striking a plate of metal that was hidden underneath her old yellow poncho. She stumbled back only a foot or two, more surprised than actually hurt. Muttering a few words to herself she, in one swift motion, pulled both of the mirialans arms behind her back, and shoved her into the ground. The mercenary didn't weigh much but the way she had twisted the poor girl's arm she knew she wouldn't budge. "You struggle too much and I break this arm." She pressed down on the arm, earning a few cries of pain before backing off. "I'll be taking that too." She added, ripping the first order blaster from her hands.

----------------------------

Poe was less than excited to be on the Sarkan homeworld, as that meant he had to attend this silly masquerade ball in order to gain intelligence on the enemy. The pilot enjoyed parties but not ones like these where you just stood around and went from person to person talking the boring side of politics. The only things keeping him there were his word to Leia and the free horderves and wine.

General Leia had asked him personally to attend this gathering and so he felt obligated to see it through. She even helped to find him the outfit he wore, a simple but well tailored black suit with matching mask. It wasn’t as fancy or high end as some of the other guests but nice enough for him to fit in. Still, he was nervous to be recognised even though knew nothing would come of it. There was an unspoken truce that everyone would surely follow, even the members of the first order that attended wouldn’t dare break it. At least there was the free sparkling wine to calm his nerves.

"Makes you wonder if something might happen. Surely there would be some gain from crashing this little get together." A Chagrian diplomat said to the small group Poe was in.

"They would've had to make it past all the security checks," A human said, shaking his head. "That is if what you were talking about made any sense whatsoever. Now, why don't we talk about something actually important, like that underground fur trade."

"Aren't they going after runyips?" Poe asked, trying to make it seem like he was interested.

"Illegally! They're a protected species…" Their conversation trailed on as Poe's mind drifted elsewhere.

The Sarkan homeworld was beautiful and Poe felt it was a shame that he would most likely never be back. It reminded him of his own homeworld, with the lush jungles and humid heat. The only difference was the architecture and the Sarkan presence. Thinking of home made the urge to leave and say he found nothing stronger. That was until he heard some voices behind him mentioning the words force and Jedi. If they truly spoke about the Jedi, it sounded like a conversation he wanted to be a part of. He casually glanced over his shoulder to see two women, one dressed in white and gold, the other in a dark blue.


Thinking this was his chance to bring something back with him, he excused himself with his current meaningless conversation and turned towards them. Poe finished his glass of wine and set it on a passing tray as he made his way over to the two. He cleared his throat to make sure his presence was known before he spoke. “I apologize for interrupting but I couldn't help but overhear what you two were talking about.” He wondered how much he should mention. Say too much and things could go south for him but don’t say enough and they would just brush him off. “I may have access to information that could help you.” Was that too vague? He didn’t know. He didn’t even know what they were actually talking about and could be lying about having information for them. But what was he supposed to do? Let this chance slip away without even trying? At least now he could say he tried if he returned empty handed. He still however didn’t want to disappoint Leia

 

[Lucyfer]

‘Chiss?’ It was the first thought at blue skin, before Finn cleared his head and reminded himself of the odds of that. He’d been out in the Unknown Regions and Wild Space for most of his life and never seen one, but the legends still lived rent free in his head. Besides, her eyes weren’t glowing red. Whoever his savior was, they weren’t Chiss, though Finn didn’t recognize the species right off. He tensed at first, before he started to relax as he realized he wasn’t about to be grabbed and manhandled.

Still, he moved slow to prevent that, rising slowly, and letting his hands leave his blaster so he could show he didn’t really want this to continue.

Even if a part of him did want to gloat that he wasn’t the one being wrestled to the floor of a dirty cantina, it was the First Order. He bit back that instinct – quite literally by biting the inside of his cheek until it quelled – and the mirialan seemed in genuine pain.

The bartender shouted, “Just get her outside, I’ll get you a drink,” he said.

The mirialan attempted to twist out, but soon thought better when pain radiated through her arm, and said instead, “You’re making a mistake! The First Order—”

“Doesn’t give two shits about me, or about you,” the bartender didn’t sound bothered by the threat implied in her tone, and didn’t seem to care at the way she turned back her fierce glare to Finn, who couldn’t quite manage to keep a straight face.

He smiled, a shit-eating grin, and waved as the bartender would move with any request made by the mercenary – once the mirialan was on her way out the door.

Finn moved to the counter, “I need a new drink, too.”

“Yeah, that’ll cost you.”

Finn sighed. Of course it would. He took out his credit chip to pay, knowing he owed the woman a word of thanks when she returned. Not that he couldn’t have handled it, but this way went a lot smoother.

~***~

The conversation was interrupted by a stranger, another human, who seemed to have overheard their conversation. Naturally, Reveille tensed, though he revealed little of what he’d heard, and only offered information. ‘But nothing’s free.’ No, nothing was ever free, though being behind a mask made getting information to negotiate a little easier.

Haka frowned, “You don’t look like you’d be old enough—”

“You’re not old enough,” Reveille cut her off before Haka could finish that sentence, though Haka had a point. The information was likely lost with some Clone Wars veterans, or else passed down to their heirs. Well, if there was information on manipulating the field of the containment fields, that was.

Otherwise, he could have other information that was relevant, that age had no impact on. Although, there was something about him that still screamed that caution should be taken. Probably his willingness to intrude on a conversation like that; he had something, but he would also want something, too.

That, and the simplicity of his attire.

There was nothing notable about it. It was black. Simple. No tells in the make of it, no tells in colors, no symbols – nothing. Whoever he was, he had something to hide. Which, of course, could make him very useful.

Or very dangerous.

“What is it you want for your information?” Reveille asked, not bothering to dance around the point, or find out what exactly he’d heard. It would get to that, but first came the price before Reveille ventured further.

Haka just looked put out, huffed, and grabbed another passing wine for herself while setting her now-empty one on the tray.